Raging Torrents Flood Ibiza as Guardia Civil Divers Stand Guard

Guardia Civil officers, including divers from its underwater unit, patrolled flooded streets, beaches and garages in Ibiza and Formentera on Monday, October 19, as Storm Adam sent overflowing torrents rushing through the Balearic Islands. Footage released by Spain’s Guardia Civil shows officers watching flood-prone areas, which the force said were under active surveillance, ready to help residents if needed.

The video opens on a fast-flowing torrent of muddy water carrying branches through a town, spilling onto a street where cars are parked at its edge as a patrol van waits with its blue lights flashing. On a beach under dark skies, floodwater pours violently into the sea, leaving small boats tipped over and half-buried in the sand as three officers look on. Divers in shirts marked “Guardia Civil Buceo” inspect a flooded intersection, peer into an underground garage filled almost to the ceiling and check a yard where a pickup truck sits deep in water. One officer can be heard saying “we have to turn everyone around, you can’t get through,” before the person filming wades into a flooded courtyard, calling out “Hello!”

Ibiza and Formentera, together known as the Pitiusas, took the brunt of the storm in the Balearics. The state weather agency recorded 190 liters per square meter in 24 hours at es Codolar, 155 in Ibiza town, 112 in Sant Joan de Labritja and 130 in Formentera, where 97.4 liters fell in a single hour on Sunday morning. The sa Llavanera torrent and the Santa Eulària river both burst their banks, the PM-280 road in Formentera was closed, and the military emergency unit was also deployed in Ibiza.

Regional emergency services kept the red alert in place for Ibiza, Formentera and Mallorca, logging 201 incidents between Saturday night and Monday midday, 113 of them in Ibiza and 59 in Formentera, including 86 flooded buildings and 29 fallen trees. “In the north of the island of Ibiza, the situation is very complicated,” said Pablo Gárriz, the Balearic government’s director general of emergencies. Mobile alerts urged residents to stay away from torrents and flood-prone areas and to move to upper floors if water got in, with more heavy rain forecast for Monday night and early Tuesday.